


if only you'd ask me again, i'd give you my hand

by SamiraScamander



Category: Castle (TV 2009)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:54:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28271970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamiraScamander/pseuds/SamiraScamander
Summary: this was written for castlemas of our dear castlegc and i got the extraordinary kirsten<3merry christmas, i hope you like this!!
Relationships: Kate Beckett/Richard Castle
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	if only you'd ask me again, i'd give you my hand

**Author's Note:**

  * For [larinnians](https://archiveofourown.org/users/larinnians/gifts).



> this was written for castlemas of our dear castlegc and i got the extraordinary kirsten<3  
> merry christmas, i hope you like this!!

She was a bit late today, more than she‘d like to be and her usual coffee shop is doing reparations, which she failed to see last time she was there. That’s why Kate Beckett was on the lookout for another coffee shop that made good coffee and was on the way to her workplace and so far, she’s come up empty. She almost gave up and accepted the reality that she had to face the day without coffee or the terrible thing the precinct called a coffee machine just as she saw a cosy looking coffee shop neatly tucked in a corner between a bookstore and a record store. Perfect.

He hums along with the song playing on the radio while he makes the fourth cup of coffee for today. Rick likes to keep score of it in the Christmas time on especially busy days, just to see if he can beat his score from last year. To know what he’s capable of, how fast he can make it. If it still turns out good.

(It always does except that one time they don’t talk about.)

Castle has his towel swung over on shoulder, humming, with his plates in hand, looking around the shop when he spots _her_. He’s glad he switched over to the morning a few days ago, or he would have missed this absolutely gorgeous woman rushing into his coffee shop. She’s walking fast towards the counter where’s he’s currently frozen in place, but he just can’t stop staring at her. Castle looks around for a quick second, to make sure none of the five customers who are here already need anything and immediately directs his gaze back at her.

The mysterious woman was coming dangerously near him now and he should really focus on something other than her. Maybe the dishes he still holds in his hand, or the towel over his shoulder. He doesn’t think he makes a good impression right now, but his brain is split between being surprised that he hasn’t dropped the dishes yet and being surprised at the sight of her.

“Good morning, I’d like a grande skim latte with two pumps sugar-free vanilla.”, she orders with a voice he’s sure is specially made to undo him.

She raises an eyebrow when he doesn’t start moving and he closes his eyes and breathes before he turns around to prepare her order, breaking free from her spell.

Castle keeps berating himself for the way he just behaved, like he was a schoolboy with a crush, not a grown man. He might just be 28, but he did think himself somewhat mature.

As soon as he was done with it, he turned around and handed her her coffee. 

She was a vision, with her wavy light brown hair and a blouse that fitted her so well it stole his breath once again.

“Here”, he chokes out.

She grins, probably laughing about the weird barista in front of her, while he just tries to get his breathing under control again and his thoughts from spiralling too far.

“It’s three dollars.” He manages to say.

She hands over the money and grins at him once more before she leaves just as quickly as she came in.

He takes a deep breath, before returning to his duties, his mind still thinking about her.

-

-

-

He looks up from his laptop he brought to work to be able to work on the manuscript of his second novel in his breaks a few days later to find her standing in front of the counter again.

He’s decided to take a break to write since he took care of everyone’s orders already and it seemed like he had a good while before anyone wanted a refill again. He can’t say he minds that his break got cut short though, not if there’s a chance to redeem himself and spend more time looking (and actually speaking) to her.

“Welcome, what do you want to order?”

“Hey”, she scans his chest for a name plate but coming up empty. His manager wanted a new design and hasn’t bought new ones yet so for now, they’re without them.

“Hey, I’m Rick. Castle. Richard Castle. Whatever you prefer.”

He wants to slap himself. Who says that? He wonders why she came back at all, but now she probably turn her back on him and never return. He certainly would.

Surprisingly, she just seems to laugh and points to the menus they have behind him.

“Okay, Castle. Can you give me one of the menus you have back there? I’ve been dying for a good bear claw. You have those, don’t you?”

“Yeah, we do.”, he turns around to grab them and opens it on the right page in front of her.

“You can order here, I‘ll bring it right up to you.” he says.

“I think I’m fine right here if that’s okay.”, she smiles.

“Of course. It will be done in a minute. Do you want coffee as well?”

“Yeah.”

“I remember your order, I have a thing for that”, he explains.

  
“Very practical as a barista.”, she smirks.

Yeah, he walked right into that one. Stupid.

“Kate Beckett.”

He turned around.

“My name is Kate Beckett. I thought you should know mine after you told me yours.”

“It’s a beautiful name.”

Fitting for such a beautiful woman as her, he thought.

“Thanks, Castle.”, she smiled.

They continued to chat while she ate her bear claw, talking about their lives and their jobs until her phone went off.

“Beckett.”, she listens intently and ends the call after a minute.

“I’m sorry, duty calls. There’s been a murder downtown.”

“Sure. Go, be badass and beat up some bad guys, Beckett.”, he smirks.

Kate rolls her eyes.

“That is _not_ what I do and I told you so.”

“On most days.”

“On most days. Today’s probably going to be a boring murder though, sorry to disappoint you, Castle.”

“Pity”, he pouts.

She smiles and waves him goodbye before leaving.

-

-

-

She sits down on what he has begun to call her usual seat, puts her phone in her bag and begins talking immediately.

“Remember when I said this is going to be a boring case? Yeah, scratch that. Turns out our victim was found with ceramic fangs in her mouth and we have to look at supernatural beings or people who pretend to be like that as our murders now”, she rolls her eyes.

“Beckett, how are you not excited about that? It’s clearly the most interesting case you had so far, probably in your whole career! Vampires and Werewolves, how can you be so calm about it?”, he exclaimed excitedly while he handed over her coffee.

“Thank you”, she takes a sip of her coffee and closes her eyes.

“This is so good. Thanks, Rick. Don’t jinx it by mentioning it, the last thing I need is our killer turning out to be a zombie or our next victim being a werewolf. Anyway, Esposito and Ryan are looking at vampire cults in New York now. I didn’t think this was a sentence I would ever say.”

He laughs.

“I’m sure they are delighted. I love this case. Any chance you can tell me more?”

  
“Sorry, I told you more than enough as it is. Tell me about your day instead, how has it been?”

This time, she only had about fifteen minutes before they call her with new information they need to check out immediately.

“Someday I’ll get you to turn off that phone and spend a whole hour with me, Beckett.”

She dramatically gasps.

“A whole hour? How am I supposed to survive that?”, she asks.

“I’ll have my ways.”, he smirks.

“Coffee?”, she grins.

“Coffee.”, he agrees.

“I would like that. I’ll tell you when I have a day off, though I doubt it’s going to happen anytime soon.”

Kate offers him a smile but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes like it usually does because there’s nothing she wants more than to spend more time with him.

“Hey, it’s fine. I like spending time with you, no matter how long you can stay.”

“I do too.”

This time, she gifts him with a rare soft smile, one that makes him see behind the armour of Kate Beckett, homicide detective and badass extraordinaire, and it warms his heart.

Castle feels like every time she leaves, she takes one more piece of his heart with her. What didn’t though, is the realization that he doesn’t mind it one bit.

-

-

-

They formed a real friendship, she keeps coming in to pick up her cup of coffee, sometimes hurriedly, sometimes in her lunch break (on days when she even has one) where they can exchange more than just a few hurried words over the counter and he starts making her coffee as soon as he can spot her silhouette outside of the café. He loves those days where she can stay longer and she has enough time to tease him about his hair or how flustered he gets around her . Castle loves all of the days, no matter how long she can stay. He didn’t notice it, but she’s become an important, if not the most important part of his life, something he looks forward to like he would to a good book.

“So” Kate says while she stirs her coffee, a teasing smirk on her face.

“So” he repeats.

“What is your book really about?” she asks, raising her index finger to stop him from speaking.

“Stop giving me this bullshit about fantasy worlds or mystery spies dealing with the most dangerous crime anyone ever created, I want to know what your book is really about.”

She looks cross, insulted even. He smirks. He’s gonna have his fun with this.

“You know, this and that. It’s about a woman.” Castle says nonchalantly, cleaning the dishes while he answers.

“You don’t seem awfully interested in this conversation”, she observes.

“Using your cop skills on me, Beckett? We agreed, interrogating me means no coffee for you”

“I’m not interrogating you, I’m just observing. Stating facts. You know my mug has been empty for at least ten minutes and I still haven’t got a refill, what kind of place is this here anyway?”

“I thought you devoted yourself to all my coffee needs?”, she teases him.

  
“I don’t recall that being a part of our vows”, he smirks.

  
“Like I’d ever marry you. Who would want to marry you?”

“You’d be surprised at the amount of people coming in asking for my number.”

Kate sticks out her tongue to him and looks down at her still empty mug. She sighs dramatically.

“Okay, I’ll get to it. Give me your mug. Tss, always so demanding.”, he scowls her.

“You’re complaining but two seconds ago you were talking about our vows. Make up your mind, Ricky.”, she teases and he has to catch his breath for a second.

She laughs, that little minx.

-

-

-

“Are you seriously singing Last Christmas?”

“What about it, Beckett? It’s a Christmas classic.”, he smirks.

  
“Yeah, because radio stations won’t stop playing it.”

“Again, because it’s a classic. You’d have to be the grinch to dislike Last Christmas.”

“Just because I’m not as keen on this whole Christmas stuff as you are does not mean I’m the Grinch, Rick.”

“No, you’re right. You’re too pretty to be the grinch.”, he smiles.

“Flattery will get you everywhere, Castle.”

“Worked wonders on you, didn’t it?”, he smirks.

“Shut up”, she says affectionally.

-

-

-

He’s fidgeting with the hem of his jacket again, like he always does when he wants to say something he’s not sure how she’s going to react to it.

“Just say it, Castle.”

“I… I want… You have to know this, no pressure at all. You can say no at any time. Really. I need you to know that, I would never-“

She takes his hand in hers and lightly squeezes it.

“I know. You would never do anything against my will. Ask me.”, she says with a smile.

“Okay. Kate, would you do me the honour and go on a date with me? I really like you and I want to get to know you, drink coffee with you, well in a different café with me not working obviously. Not that this isn’t nice because I love it, but just being able to spend all the time with you instead of having to work I mean.”, he says and gets quieter at the ending. He’s rambling. It’s terrible. He should just stop.

  
“Castle, you’re a great guy and you’re a good friend and I really mean that, but I just can’t right now, my life… I can’t, I’m sorry.”, she draws back her hand and looks down.

“Right. Okay. It’s okay, we don’t have to. Like I said, no pressure.” , he replies quickly while his mind is still trying wrapping it itself around the fact that she said no. It’s not like we wouldn’t accept it, it’s just that he actually thought he could have a real chance here, even though Kate is so dangerously far out of his league. He’s still surprised she even likes him, even more at the fact that she considers him her friend and keeps coming back to this particular coffee shop solely to spend her breaks and mornings with him. It will never stop to amaze him.

"I'm sorry." She looks down at her phone.

"I really have to get going now. See you, Rick."

"Sure." He waves after her half-heartedly.

Her phone didn’t even ring, she probably doesn’t even have an active crime scene she has to get to, but she just left him anyways, he realized, his heart heavy. He never should’ve asked.

-

-

-

She came in for a quick coffee the next two days, not talking much. Kate blamed it on being busy, but Castle personally thinks she's avoiding him. It hurts, but he can't say he minds because it gives him time to mend his broken heart. She’s different the next time she comes in though.

“Got no killer to catch?”, he greets her.

“No, I… Actually, yes, but Ryan and Esposito can take over for a day. They don’t necessarily need me right now.”

“I mean if they do need you, they can always call too. I’m glad you’re here”, he smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

“I left my phone at the station. Didn’t want to be interrupted”, she reluctantly answers.

He frowns. This didn’t make sense for him. They both wanted that for so long, to just spend time together without having the threat of her ringing phone hanging over them, but it just didn’t make sense how she decided to do that after she rejected him.

“Can you come over here?”, she asks.

He made his way from behind the counter to her and sat down in the seat next to his, that’s when his heart stopped. She took his hands not even a second after he sat down and gently caressed them while she hesitantly started to speak.

“I hope you can forgive me, Rick, I just… I rejected you and told you that I didn’t want to go on a date with you, but that was untrue. I thought about it every second since you asked me and I couldn’t sleep because I kept beating myself up for saying no when all I wanted was to say yes, but there are so many things you don’t know about me and I don’t think what you would think about me once you knew. I’m a complicated person. I get caught up in my job and I work long hours and I do dangerous things and I will throw myself into every battle if it means justice for the person I’m fighting for. I won’t change that once I’m in a relationship. I have a hard time opening up.”

She hasn’t looked up from their intertwined hands once since she started speaking, but she lifts her gaze to look into his eyes to say to next few words.

“Despite all of that, I would like to go on a date with you. If you still want to, I mean. It’s totally okay if you have changed your mind, Rick.”, her voice trembles slightly.

“I would like that very much, Kate.”, he smiles.

“I do think you’re underestimating how well I know you though. Of course, there are things I don’t know about you yet, but there are also things you don’t know about me. About your work – Our time together is cut short regularly by your work and I never mind. Well, I do, but not in the way that I would like to change it or you and that won’t change if we decide to give this a try.”

She smiles at him softly and all he wants to do is kiss her and keep her smiling like that at him forever.

“Can I kiss you now? Are you okay with that?”, he asks gently.

“Shut up”, she pulls him close and kisses him.

All he can manage to think is how much it was worth the wait, but then she starts to rest one of her hands in his hair and all his thoughts vanish into thin air.


End file.
